Can We Start Again?
by shadrougeforever
Summary: The sequel to By My Side. Shortly after Rouge gets hired to work for the Chaotix team, she finds difficulty bonding with her new teammates and her new coldhearted partner, Shadow. Will Rouge ever find acceptance by the team of detectives? Find out! COMPLETE


Espio, Tonya, and Rouge scattered all throughout the huge training room located below the Chaotix building. The group of detectives had confronted a silver giant robot that took the form of a rabbit it seemed. When the robot slammed its foot down onto the floor, they all couldn't help but to fall to the concrete floor.

"Get ready, Chaotix team!" A deep and mysterious voice had came from the robot rabbit. "It's time to play!"

The purple cat woman stood from the floor and pulled out a Japanese styled fan that had metal blades on the edges. "Okay it's seriously too early for this."

"You're telling me!" The purple chameleon pulled out a giant shuriken. "I didn't even have breakfast yet!"

The white bat watched as the two charged towards the robot with their weapons. It didn't matter how many times they scratched it with their blades, it seemed like it never took any serious damage.

The robot took its paws and smacked them both against the wall. They both fell to the floor and had dropped their weapons.

The bat woman clenched her fists and charged at the robot by using her wings and flying towards it. She sent powerful kicks at the head of the robot and that didn't seem to take much effect either. The robot's armor was way too thick to penetrate. She was suddenly slammed into the wall as well. Before she could jump back up to fight it once more, the robot had cornered her. Her eyes widened in panic as she saw a strange gun appearing out of its back and being aimed at her.

"It's time to meet your doom!"

Sweat poured down the side of her head as she heard the gun being charged and ready to fire at her. She shut her eyes tightly awaiting for the painful impact until she had heard a familiar voice shouting into the room.

"Hey! Hey! Hey! I said no firearms!"

When she opened her eyes, she looked around the room and saw a green male crocodile walking into the room.

The robotic rabbit turned to the crocodile and backed away from the terrified bat woman. "Aw!"

Everyone saw a young male kid bee appear out of the head of the robot.

"You really know to kill the mood, boss!" The kid bee shut down the robotic rabbit and flew down towards the group of detectives.

Vector crossed his arms towards the bee. "Well if you would just take it down a notch with that damn robot, I wouldn't have to worry about spending too much on repairs! I really don't know why you installed weapons on that thing anyway!"

"Yeah", the chameleon added as he rubbed his aching head. "The weapons are a little overkill, Charms."

"No way!" The bee flew over to the robotic robot and hugged its giant metal leg. "Bun Buns is the perfect killing machine! I love him!"

"Oh yeah! This thing will totally prepare us for a giant bunny attack!" The cat woman spoke in a sarcastic tone.

Rouge arched an eyebrow towards the kid bee. "Isn't that thing supposed to be a training robot? And did you just call it Bun Buns?"

Espio placed his hand on the bat woman's shoulder. "Just let the little guy have his moment with his baby."

Charmy continued to passionately embrace the robot. "I love you, Bun Buns!"

"I suppose that's enough training for today anyway." Vector glanced around the room and turned to the group of detectives when he noticed someone was missing from the group. "Wha? Where the hell is Shadow?"

The detectives shrugged their shoulders at the crocodile until they heard the door opening and closing. They turned and saw a black and red hedgehog coming into the room with a clipboard in his hand.

"Sorry I'm late."

Vector turned to the apathetic looking hedgehog. "Shadow! You missed another training session with Bun Buns! You can't keep skipping out on this!"

He placed a hand on his side and turned away from the crocodile in annoyance. "I told you I don't need to train with that overgrown rabbit. I could take that thing down with my hands tied behind my back."

Vector placed a finger to his chin. "Oh ho! Cocky huh? Well Shad, you better put up or shut up when shit goes down for real!"

The hedgehog arched an eyebrow and crossed his arms. "Yeah, I'll be sure to have my guard up every time I confront a rabbit", he spoke in an uncaring attitude before he started to walk away.

Rouge called out to him before he could leave the room. "Hey, Shad…"

His eyes shifted over to her coldly, "I've told you before when I hired you, you need to direct me as Captain Shadow."

She couldn't help but to roll her eyes in annoyance. Ever since the two had began to work with each other, he once again acted bitter and distant from her just as he had when they first met. She thought that his attitude against her would would've changed since the two had shared that small friendly moment a little before Rouge had saved him from Hao's robot attack. "Whatever! But I just wanted to know that even though this is like my second day here, I'm still not sure about what I'm supposed to do."

The hedgehog turned his head to the green crocodile. "Talk to Vector about it. I'm far too busy to chat with you right now."

She couldn't believe that he was completely blowing her off and he was the one who was supposed to be working with her. "Wha? But Shadow!" Before she could say anything else, the hedgehog had stormed his way out of the room.

Before Espio left the room with Tonya and Charmy, he turned to the confused bat woman. "Don't worry about ol Shad, bat girl. It takes him a minute before he warms up to newbies." After that being said, he left out of the room leaving Rouge with Vector.

Vector placed his hand on her shoulder, "Let's step into my office, Rouge. I think we should chat."

Later, Rouge had sat in a small but comfy chair that set across from Vector's big desk. She looked around his big office in curiosity. She had been in his office once and that was when she had gotten her detective badge. It was big but it was cluttered with mostly papers, folders, and other office supplies. Compared to Shadow's office, Shadow had seemed far more organized than Vector was. Their offices looked nothing alike. "So, what did you wanna talk about?"

The crocodile leaned on the surface of the messy desk and directed his attention to the white bat woman. "I mainly just wanted to chit chat with you. Ever since you got hired, you barely had time to get to know about this place and us. We're all like a family here you see? We look out for each other."

"Well you all do seem really close except…um…" She didn't want to say Shadow's name in front of Vector. She knew he was the second in command and just talking negative about him in front of Vector seemed like a red flag.

A small chuckle escaped the crocodile when he figured she was talking about Shadow. "What? Shad? I know he can be difficult to talk to at times and he does seem like he has an attitude from Hell every time he walks through the door, but he's not a bad guy. He's just trying to get over some rough stuff right now. He's had a rough life. A lot of us have been through some kind of Hell to be honest but that's what made us want to do something with ourselves. To help others who have suffered like us. We all want to make a difference."

She slowly nodded her head while she listened to him and felt like she could relate to what he was saying.

"But I want you to forget about the morning tasks Shadow had wanted you to do. Today, I want you to focus on getting to know everyone. Feel everyone out. Listen to their stories about what had made them become detectives and all that jazz."

She bit her lip nervously. She didn't have a problem talking to the rest of the detectives but Shadow seemed like the one who would make her task difficult. He barely talked to anyone at all it seemed. She thought that he would never want to speak anything of his earlier life especially with her. "Well…", she began. "What made you want to become leader of the Chaotix?"

A warm smile formed on his face as he eagerly began to explain to her. "Well I grew up in the slam middle of the western district of Tech City. As you may have heard, it's pretty rough over there. I saw some crazy shit there when I was only a boy. I witnessed murders happening almost every other day it seemed. The police were awful. Very slack and lazy. It was Hell there back then. Of course now things have gotten slightly better over there but it's still kinda bad compared to the east district of the city. With all the shit going on back then, I didn't want to see anymore people suffer the way I had witnessed. So around your age, I founded this place and I decided to turn it into a little detective agency. We're a small agency and all but I work with everyone who has an undying passion to help people."

She placed a finger on her lip as she continued to listen to him. "I see that you take a lot of pride in this agency."

The crocodile nodded his head with a warm smile. "You'll learn a lot working here, Rouge. You'll love this place. I promise."

She made a small nod and smiled warmly believing that she would indeed enjoy working alongside him and the other detectives.

After when she had talked to Vector, she decided to try to talk with Shadow. She found herself sitting across from him in his office. She tried to form a friendly smile when she noticed him sitting in his desk chair with his arms folded across his chest and him giving her a cold glare. "So", she began nervously. "How are you today?"

He didn't seem interested in talking to her at the least bit. "Okay why are you here again?"

The white bat clenched her fists in frustration towards his arrogant attitude. "Oh come on, Shadow! Vector told me to try learning more about everybody! That includes you too you know?"

"I don't have to tell you shit", he snapped coldly.

Despite his horrible attitude, she didn't want to give up so easily. "But Shadow…"

"That's Captain Shadow to you!"

"Ugh! Whatever! I just wanna know about your life!"

He looked away from her and remained silent.

"Come on! Why did you join the Chaotix? What was your earlier life like? Who were your parents? Where did you grow up? What are your hopes and dreams? How did you become captain? You have to be a little more open to me. We are partners now after all…"

The more she kept talking, the more he felt like he couldn't take her being in his presence and longer. "You wanna know about my life story? Fine! My life is a steaming pile of shit! The end! Now get out or be thrown out!"

Her eyes widened as she was stunned to hear that Shadow had thought of his life so lowly. She paused for a moment before she stood up from her chair uneasily and began to leave his office. "Um…thanks for the lovely chat…"

After when she had finally left, he huffed angrily and slammed a paper on his desk and continued to write on it. "…Stupid girl", he growled.

After Rouge had talked to Shadow, she decided to talk with Tonya. She and the purple cat woman were leaning against Tonya's desk while they stood in the main lobby. They were both creating conversation while they both drunk coffee. Rouge took a sip of her coffee before she continued to talk to Tonya. "It's so good to talk to another girl here! These boys here are insane!"

Tonya sent Rouge a bitter look and sipped some of the coffee from her mug.

Rouge figured that she had said something to upset her. She decided to quickly change the subject. "So uh, what do you do here?"

She placed her mug of coffee on the desk behind them and focused her attention on Rouge. "I work here as the secretary."

She tried to sound interested in her job. "Oh? Do you like it? Is it hard?"

She rolled her eyes in annoyance. "Yeah it's super hard sitting on my ass all day taking phone calls, and typing until my fingertips bleed", she spoke in a sarcastic tone.

Rouge had a feeling that Tonya didn't like her very much or at all it seemed. She set down her cup full of coffee on the desk and rose her eyebrow at the cat woman. "Um? Do you have some kind of problem with me?"

The purple cat crossed her arms and gave her a cold glare. "You must think you're hot shit huh? Coming in here with your short skirts, skanky heels, and your tits busting out your top! I know why you're here! All these dumb boys are drooling over you because you dress like a tramp! I can't believe Shadow hired someone like you! How could you possibly be a good candidate as a guns girl?"

Rouge had a look full of confusion on her face. She had figured she was just jealous of her but she couldn't understood why. In her eyes, it seemed that Tonya was quite attractive as well.

She pointed at the puzzled bat woman. "You mesmerized Shadow with your boobs!"

A sweat drop appeared on the side of the uneasy bat's head. "Wha? Now hold on! If you think something's up with me and Shadow you're totally wrong! Shadow apparently doesn't even like me! He probably hates me even looking in his direction! I-I didn't know you and Shadow were a thing!"

The cat's eyes shot open in panic. She quickly placed her hand over the bat's mouth. "Wha-what? Me and Shadow?" She repeated with a huge and deep blush on her face. "A thing? Don't be ridiculous! We're just friends!"

Judging by her reaction, it didn't take a genius to figure out that Tonya had a giant crush on Shadow. She took Tonya's hand away from her mouth. "Well how was I supposed to know you had a monster crush on him? He's a looker don't get me wrong but he has one hell of an ugly attitude! I wouldn't go after that if he was the last man on Mobius!"

"Good! I uh mean…you wouldn't be his type anyway."

She sent the cat woman a sly look and decided to tease her now that she knew her secret about Shadow. "Would I have to be a secretary to be his type?"

Her blush deepened on her face in embarrassment as it was too obvious that Rouge had found out about her so called secret crush on Shadow. "Would you go be annoying somewhere else!"

When Rouge was done talking to Tonya, she made her way into the garage to find Charmy to talk to him. In amazement, she looked up at the huge jet plane setting in front of her and the kid bee. "You built this?"

He was wiping some grease off of a wrench he held in his hands. "Yup I sure did! Captain Shadow and I are the only ones who can operate the X-jet."

She couldn't help but to think that Charmy was the only one out of everyone else that called Shadow Captain Shadow. That showed that he had a deep respect for him.

Charmy hovered in front of Rouge with a wide smile on his face. "I'm the mechanical specialist here! I work on all kinds of machinery and other cool inventions I can think of! I'm a tinker!"

"That's so cool, Charmy! You must be an expert with this kind of stuff!"

The bee couldn't help but to form a light blush on his face. "Well I wouldn't say an expert", he spoke with a giggle.

Rouge placed her hands on her hips as she studied the kid bee and realized how young he looked. "You know what? You're really young to be working here. How old are you anyway?"

"I'm only sixteen years old. I'm not as young as I look you know?"

The bat's mouth hung open in disbelief as he revealed his age to her. "What? How old were you when you started working here?"

He paused for a moment as he began to think back when he did first started officially working at the Chaotix. "I've been here for as long as I can remember but I didn't really start working until I was thirteen."

Her mind was blown. The bee had been at the detective agency for more than several years it seemed. Who was he exactly? "Wait a minute, how did you get a job here at such a young age and doing something like…this?"

The bee sat on a huge tire that set on the floor before he began explaining to her. "Well when I was really young, I didn't have any parents. They were killed a little after when I was born. But my life was saved by the boss!"

"Vector?" Rouge asked blankly.

The bee nodded. "Vector took me in and let me stay with him and his wife Margaret from there on in."

"So Vector is kinda like a father figure for you then?"

The bee once again nodded. "Yup! He, Tonya, and I founded this place and we decided to work together to become detectives!"

Rouge placed a finger to her chin as she thought that the original detectives here were Vector, Tonya, and Charmy. Apparently Shadow and Espio had joined up with them much later during the years. "I see…"

He hovered from the tire he was sitting on and confronted the bat. "If you want, I can show you my upcoming project, the time traveling toaster!"

"Uh…maybe later", she spoke in an uninterested voice before she practically ran out of the garage.

Disappointed, Charmy sat back down on the tire and crossed his arms. "No one ever wants to see the time traveling toaster…"

A little later, Rouge found herself in a small white room. In the room, there was a white counter filled with papers and medical supplies. In the corner was a small bed covered in white sheets. She figured she was in the medical room of the Chaotix. She was startled when she heard the door to the room being opened. She turned and saw a purple male chameleon stepping into the room while he held a clipboard in his hand. "Ah, Rouge! I was looking for you!"

She suddenly remembered back when the two had first met, he hopeless hit on her. "…Oh you were?" She saw him close the door gently behind him and saw him setting down the clipboard on the counter.

"Yeah! Vector told me you were going around the Chaotix all day trying to get to know everyone a little better." He sat down in a gray chair that was near the counter and pulled out a black bar stool for her to sit on. "Please take a seat."

With unease, she sat down across from the purple chameleon with her arms crossed. "So what do you do here exactly?"

"I work as the medic", he spoke proudly. "I specialize in all kinds of medicines, herbs, and serums. Of course I'm not going to be cocky and say that I'm an expert. I'm still in training."

"I see", she spoke in an uninterested tone.

He figured that she was a little upset from his behavior towards her a few days ago. "I know I've said some crazy things to you at first and I apologize. But you…you're just so cute! I couldn't help it! It's about time this place stepped up and got more hot chicks to work here!"

She couldn't help but to be flattered by his words. "I'm nothing to get excited over now", she spoke modestly.

"Are you kidding? You're amazing! Shadow definitely knew what he was doing when he got you to work here!"

Her smile faded and her eyes started to wander down to the white floor when she heard the hedgehog's name. "I don't think Shadow likes me very much."

He arched an eyebrow towards her, "Wha? What makes you think that?"

She looked away from the floor and back at the chameleon. "I don't know…When we first met, he hated the thought of hiring me but now look at us! I'm supposed to be partnered with him and he will barely look at me! He's so cold and distant! Does he hate me or what?"

"Don't be ridiculous, Rouge! Shadow doesn't hate you! Like I said before, it'll just take some time for him to get used to you." He bit his lip and his heart raced a bit as he was debating on discussing more about the topic with Shadow. "…He's been through a lot since his last partner died."

Rouge quickly looked away from the floor and looked back at the chameleon when he started speaking of the previous guns girl. "You mean…the last guns girl?"

He paused and then made a slight nod.

"…Her name wouldn't have happened to be Faye would it?"

He looked at her surprised that she had known her name. "How did you know that?"

"…He slipped her name to me before."

He placed his finger to his chin. "Hm…Shadow rarely speaks of her around here. It's weird that he would mention her to you."

She fiddled with her fingers as she continued to talk to him. "Who was she anyway?"

He had to admit that he wasn't comfortable speaking about her without Shadow knowing. Espio crossed his arms as he nervously began to explain. "Faye Alaskstar…She was the first guns girl. She was also Shadow's partner…and girlfriend."

Her ears perked up as she remembered the picture setting on Shadow's desk in his office. She remembered that a purple fox woman was with Shadow in the picture. "Oh! She must've been the girl from the photograph setting on his desk!"

"…Yeah", Espio spoke sadly. "Before she died, Shadow was always so open and carefree. He was happy…"

Rouge formed a sympathetic look as the chameleon told her more about Shadow's past life with the last guns girl.

"When she passed, a lot of things around here changed. We were all devastated but Shadow…he took it the hardest. Her death practically drove him over them edge. He was severely depressed, he became an alcoholic and a drug addict, he even tried to off himself a few times…"

Rouge's mouth hung open in shock. She didn't have a clue that Shadow was ever like that. "Oh my God…"

"He blames himself for her death because they had gotten into a heated argument the last time they spoke to each other. He wasn't there…and before he could save her, it was too late."

Rouge had thought that maybe Shadow was so bitter with her was because he felt like she was taking the place of his dead girlfriend and it made him feel uncomfortable. "But what's his deal with me?"

He shook his head because he doubt that she had did anything to upset him. "The last thing Faye told Shadow was that he was selfish…when you said that to him, I suppose it struck a nerve." He slowly stood from his chair and turned to the shocked bat woman. "I think Shadow doesn't want to get too close to you Rouge, because he's afraid…he's afraid he'll fail and end up losing you too."

She looked up at the chameleon and thought that perhaps he was right about how Shadow felt about her. "You know what? You seem to know a lot about Shadow? What's your history with him?"

"Well", he started. "It seemed that Shadow had always went through some kind of Hell in his life even in the beginning. When we met, I knew he and I would be bros for life. He and I did everything together. Hell, before he got his own place, he was my roommate. He and I even started working here together. In fact, I was his very first partner before Faye had joined the Chaotix."

Rouge had then thought why Espio knew about him so much. He was close to him. Too close it seemed. "Espio…were you two like…gay…or something?"

There was an immediate pause as the chameleon gave her an awkward look. "What? Aw dude! Sick! He and I are strictly and all about the pussy!"

A light blush formed on her in embarrassment when she thought that she should've never had asked him that. "Sorry! I thought I'd just ask anyway!"

He shook his head while he was trying to get the repulsive thought of him and Shadow ever being that sort of way with each other. "Anyway, don't take everything he says to you to heart, Rouge. Shadow cares…trust me." He spoke before he left the room.

Rouge sat there in the small white room trying to take in everything Espio had told her. She looked at the doorway when she saw Espio peek his head back into the room.

"Oh and could you do me a favor and not tell anyone about this little conversation. Especially Shadow. For God's sake! Please do not speak a word of this to Shadow. He'd kill me!"

"You got it, Espio." She formed a small smile and made a nod towards him before he finally left the room.

Much later, Rouge was downstairs in the weaponry room working on a handgun until she heard foot steps coming down the stairs. When she spun around, she saw a black and red hedgehog approaching her. "Oh, Captain Shadow! I have something to show you!"

He placed his hands in his pants pockets and arched an eyebrow at the bat woman. He saw her dressed in a skin tight black leather bodysuit, with black gloves and knee high black boots. He could barely take his eyes away from her massive cleavage being the only thing visible besides her head from the suit she was wearing. "What the hell are you wearing?"

She looked down at the suit she was wearing and twirled around it so Shadow could take a good look at it better. "Do you like it? I call this the gun suit! It's equipped with tons of firearms and blades. It's flammable and easy to move around in! It's kinda like battle armor!"

He was speechless and he tried not to blush in embarrassment from her wearing such a tight and revealing body suit. "…It's…um…"

"You don't have to say anything! I still have to test it out and see how well it does out on the field!"

He tried to shake the perverted thoughts from his head and focus on talking to her seriously. "Rouge, you need to stop fooling around down here! I gave you a list of tasks to do this morning and I don't see anything being done!"

"Sorry I thought I told you that Vector wanted me to do other things before I started on my actual work. I'll get to everything right away…" Before she could walk around the room, Shadow had grabbed her wrist and made her turn to him.

"Rouge…", he began as his hand slipped away from her wrist. "I just wanted to apologize for the way I've been acting today. I'm just having one of those days…you know?"

She paused and remembered what Espio had told her about him. She still couldn't get over the fact that he tried to kill himself just because he felt responsible for the last guns girl's death. She could still see the sadness in his eyes and she felt like she couldn't look away.

Shadow noticed her staring at him strangely. "…What?" Shadow stared back at her in confusion.

"I can still see it…"

He was so lost. He didn't understand anything she was saying. What had suddenly gotten into her? "…Hm?"

She quickly snapped out her thoughts and turned away from him in embarrassment. "Oh uh…nothing!"

The hedgehog slowly shook his head and then turned away from her. "Whatever! Just stop fooling around and get to work!"

When she saw him walking back up the stairs, she called out to him. "Shadow…"

Shadow stopped in his tracks and turned to her in annoyance. "What?"

"…You're really lucky."

He gave her a confused look as he saw her leaning against the railing of the stairs with a warm smile on her face.

"…Everyone here loves and respects you. For what its worth, I think you're a great captain."

With a small smile, he turned away from her and walked out of the room.

**Author's Note: If you guys were reading By My Side and were confused a little by it perhaps this story gave you the answers to your questions. I'll write more stories that'll go more in depth with Shadow's past with Faye. But for now, get ready for more brand new stories coming your way! Thank you all for reading! Review please!**


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